Photos in iCloud lead police to stolen iPad and iPod

A WOMAN whose computer, iPod and iPad were stolen last year has had her stolen items found after recognising a woman whose pictures started appearing in her iCloud account after the theft.

Police from the Richmond Local Area Command have said on their Facebook page the items were stolen during a break-in last November.

However, while taking the items, the thief or thieves neglected to change their iCloud settings, meaning photos taken with the iPod and iPad kept turning up in the Goonellabah woman's account.

Then on Friday, while at a supermarket, the woman spotted a woman who had featured in some of the photos appearing in her iCloud account. She phoned police who came straight away and spoke to the woman she had seen.

After questioning the woman from the photos, police went to her home, where they found the laptop and i-devices, along with other items they suspected had been stolen as well as her partner.

The partner, a 35-year-old man, was charged with four counts of possessing goods likely to have been stolen and one count of supplying a prohibited drug.

The case follows numerous instances of police tracking down stolen i-devices using an app that uses the devices' internal GPS to track and locate them.

iCloud and the "Find my" iPhone/Pod/Pad app have proved so useful in tracking down stolen devices police are now recommending people use them to make sure they can get their devices back if they are stolen.

Police also recommend using the old-fashioned method of recording the serial numbers of your i-devices, just to make sure you can prove it's really yours once they find it.